Emotions (song)
"
Emotions" is a song written and produced by
Mariah Carey with
David Cole and
Robert Clivillés of the
C&C Music Factory, and recorded for Carey's second album
Emotions (1991). It was released as the album's first
single in the third quarter of 1991 in the United States and in the fourth quarter elsewhere (see
1991 in music). This
disco-influenced
dance song has its protagonist going through a variety of emotions, from high to low, up to the point where she declares "you got me feeling emotions" and sings high notes. It became Carey's fifth consecutive number-one single in U.S. and gave her her first
Billboard magazine chart record, and it was also her first real success elsewhere since her debut single.
Carey had originally wanted to create
hip hop tracks for the up-tempo songs on her second album; although Sony had given her more leeway, they considered this too much, so she settled for
dance music as second best. She was sent to work with the
C&C Music Factory and they composed the song "You're So Cold", which became the first choice for the album's first single. However, a second session with the production team had them feeling in a lighter mood when "Emotions" was created and finally decided upon as the lead single.
"Emotions" was the first song which showcased Carey's ability to hit very high notes for extended periods of time; the song's bridge has her sustaining a high note for almost ten seconds. The notes highlighted the size of her
vocal range, and when hitting them Carey sings in the
whistle register, the vocal technique she is most famous for. She managed to hit a G#7 during a performance of the song at the 1991
MTV Video Music Awards, reportedly one of the highest notes recorded by a female vocalist.
The song's writers and produced faced allegations of
plagiarism. In interviews, Carey and C&C Music Factory stated that they had been inspired by the song "
Best of My Love" by the disco/soul group
The Emotions, but denied directly lifting music or lyrics from it. The Emotions disagreed, and started a lawsuit which was apparently settled out of court with no public statement issued.
"Emotions" was nominated for the 1992
Grammy Award for "
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance", losing to "Something to Talk About" by
Bonnie Raitt. It won a
BMI Pop Award, continuing Carey's unbroken streak of wins for this award.
"Emotions" became Carey's fifth consecutive number-one hit on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100, giving her the distinction of being the first (and, as of 2006, only) act to have their first five singles make number one on the Hot 100. (She had previously shared a record of four with
The Jackson 5.) It reached number one in its seventh week and spent three weeks at the top, from
October 6 to
October 26 1991. It replaced "
Good Vibrations" by
Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch featuring
Loleatta Holloway, and was replaced by
Karyn White's "Romantic". It remained in the top forty for twenty weeks and was one of four singles from Carey on the Hot 100's 1991 year-end charts, ranking twenty-second. The song topped the
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart and became her second number one single on the
Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The
RIAA certified it
gold.
Outside the U.S., it was Carey's most successful single since "
Vision of Love" (1990), the lead single from her debut album. It reached the top five in
Canada and
New Zealand, and became her first single to reach the
United Kingdom top twenty since her debut. It was even bigger in
Australia, where it just missed the top ten, but its success in continental
Europe was limited. It only reached number ninety on
Japan's
Oricon chart, becoming one of her biggest failures there.
|
A scene from the music video. |
The single's
video, directed by
Jeff Preiss, features Carey and friends with
exotic animals experiencing emotions while partying and having fun around town. The video was
desaturated but still maintains various different color tints, which change from purple to green to red and so forth.
David Cole and Robert Clivillés created the main remix of "Emotions" known as "Emotions" (12" club mix). Although Carey did not re-record her vocals for it, she added a new
gospel-style intro before the song's dance portion. This new intro was used when she performed "Emotions" on
MTV Unplugged in 1992, as well as at some later concerts. A music video was created using the 12" club mix, but is only slight changes in editing differentiate it from the video for the original version.
*
U.S. CD single (cassette single/7" single)#"Emotions" (album version)#"Vanishing" (album version)
*
U.S. CD maxi single (cassette maxi single/12" maxi single)#"Emotions" (12" club mix)#"Emotions" (12" instrumental)#"Emotions" (album version)#"
There's Got to Be a Way" (12" mix)#"There's Got to Be a Way" (vocal dub mix)
*
UK cassette single#"Emotions" (album version)#"Vanishing" (album version)
| Chart (1991) | Peak
position | No. of chart topper | | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 (3 weeks) | 5th |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks | 1 (1 week) | 3rd |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play | 1 (1 week) | 2nd |
|align="left"|U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary | 3 | — |
| U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40 | 1 (2 weeks) | 5th |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 3 | — |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 3 | — |
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 11 | — |
| UK Singles Chart | 17 | — |
| Germany Singles Chart | 39 | — |
| Tokyo Hot 100 | 90 | — |
*
Hot 100 number-one hits of 1991 (USA)*
Lyrics for the album version
